The Return of the Public in Global Governance

Cambridge University Press, 2/20/2014
EAN 9781107052956, ISBN10: 1107052955

Hardcover, 273 pages, 23.5 x 15.9 x 2.5 cm
Language: English

Many international relations scholars argue that private authority and private actors are playing increasingly prominent roles in global governance. This book focuses on the other side of the equation: the transformation of the public dimension of governance in the era of globalization. It analyses that transformation, advancing two major claims: first, that the public is beginning to play a more significant role in global governance, and, second, that it takes a rather different form than has traditionally been understood in international relations theory. The authors suggest that unless we transcend conventional wisdom about the public as a distinct sphere, separate from the private domain, we cannot understand the dynamics and consequences of its apparent return. Using examples drawn from international political economy, international security and environmental governance, they argue that 'the public' should be conceptualized as a collection of culturally-specific social practices.

Part I. Introduction
1. Introduction Jacqueline Best and Alexandra Gheciu
2. Theorizing the public as practices
transformations of the public in historical context Jacqueline Best and Alexandra Gheciu
Part II. Transformations of the Public in Historical Context
3. The dynamics of 'private' security strategies and their public consequences
transnational organizations in historical perspective Deborah Avant and Virginia Haufler
4. Out from the shadows
governing OTC derivatives after the 2007–8 financial crisis Eric Helleiner
Part III. Reconstituting the Global Public Today
5. The 'demand side' of good governance
the return of the public in World Bank policy Jacqueline Best
6. The publicness of non-state global environmental and social governance Steven Bernstein
7. Climate re-public
practising public space in conditions of extreme complexity Matthew Paterson
8. Transforming the logic of security provision in post-Communist Europe Alexandra Gheciu
9. Understanding US national intelligence
analyzing practices to capture the chimera Anna Leander
Part IV. Conceptualizing the Public as Practices
Theoretical Implications
10. Constitutive public practices in a world of changing boundaries Tony Porter
11. Publics, practices, and power Rita Abrahamsen and Michael C. Williams.